Automated attendant multimedia session

ABSTRACT

An automated attendant system is made multimedia capable by adding a combined user agent to the automated attendant. A search is done to verify that the caller to the automated attendant has combined user agent capabilities. If so, the caller receives multimedia content from the automated attendant&#39;s combined user agent so that the content may be presented on the caller&#39;s computer to assist the caller in navigating through the automated attendant&#39;s menus and options. Upon selection of a desired connection from the menus and options, the automated attendant&#39;s combined user agent helps the caller be connected by voice to the selected connection.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention provides for multimedia sessions between acaller and an automated attendant.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] Traditional telephony services provided by digital switches, suchas digital multiplexing switches, have reached their functional limitswith existing user interfaces, which essentially are telephone setshaving limited displays and simple keypads. Further, the telephone setshave limited bandwidth. Over newer packet networks, multimedia servicesare flourishing and are capable of exploiting the capabilities ofadvanced user terminals, desktop computers, and network appliances.

[0003] Currently, the vast majority of voice telephony is provided, atleast in part, by traditional circuit-switched networks. Given theextensive infrastructure, reliability, and quality of service, thetraditional telephony systems are likely to remain a significant part ofcommunications for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, there has beendifficulty integrating voice sessions over the traditional telephonynetwork with multimedia sessions over packet networks. Users prefer thetraditional telephony network for voice, yet the voice network isunacceptable for facilitating advanced multimedia services, such asscreen sharing and video conferencing.

[0004] The difficulties of integrating voice and multimedia sessionshave, to some extent, been solved in commonly owned U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/028,510, filed Dec. 20, 2001, which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety. The applications to whichthis solution may be put are myriad. For example, many telecommunicationservice users are frustrated with automated attendants. In particular, auser may place a call and have the call answered by seemingly countlessmenus and prompts before they can talk to a real person. Thus, there isa need for an option that allows a user to use the multimediacapabilities of their communications equipment to help facilitate thenavigation of automated attendants.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0005] The present invention provides a solution to the needs describedabove by using a combined user agent to establish a multimedia sessionbetween a caller and a called entity that uses an automated responsesystem. In particular, a caller that has multimedia capabilities anduses a combined user agent makes a call to a called entity and passes anindication that the caller has this capability.

[0006] The called entity, which also has multimedia capabilities and theuse of a combined user agent, learns that the caller has multimediacapabilities and initiates a multimedia session with the caller relatingto the automated response system. The caller's computer is used topresent the multimedia information to the caller, and the caller mayinteract with the multimedia information to learn more about selectionsand options in the automated response system. As the caller navigatesthrough the multimedia information, the caller may be presented theoption to select an extension relating to particular portions of themultimedia content. Upon selecting an extension, the caller's telephonemay be connected to that extension for a conversation with a real personrather than the automated response system. If the person associated withthe extension is not available, the caller may be routed to a voice mailsystem.

[0007] Those skilled in the art will appreciate the scope of the presentinvention and realize additional aspects thereof after reading thefollowing detailed description of the preferred embodiments inassociation with the accompanying drawing figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008] The accompanying drawing figures incorporated in and forming apart of this specification illustrate several aspects of the invention,and together with the description serve to explain the principles of theinvention.

[0009]FIG. 1 is a communication environment adapted to support thepresent invention;

[0010]FIG. 2 is a second embodiment of a communication environmentadapted to support the present invention;

[0011]FIG. 3 is an alternate embodiment of the communication environmentof FIG. 2;

[0012]FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a combined user agent according tothe present invention;

[0013]FIG. 5 is a communication environment with a caller and a calledentity with multiple potential call termination end points; and

[0014]FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating the methodology of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0015] The embodiments set forth below represent the necessaryinformation to enable those skilled in the art to practice the inventionand illustrate the best mode of practicing the invention. Upon readingthe following description in light of the accompanying drawing figures,those skilled in the art will understand the concepts of the inventionand will recognize applications of these concepts not particularlyaddressed herein. It should be understood that these concepts andapplications fall within the scope of the disclosure and theaccompanying claims.

[0016] The functionality of the present invention relies, in itspreferred embodiment, on the previously incorporated '510 patentapplication for some of its functionality. It should be appreciated thatother techniques of facilitating the same functionality are alsopossible, but that for the purposes of explanation, the presentinvention will use the elements of the '510 application, which explainedan efficient unification of parallel voice and multimedia sessions,wherein the voice session takes place in part over a traditionalcircuit-switched telephony network. A call signaling agent is created tocontrol packet-based multimedia sessions, as well as to control callsignaling at a traditional telephony switch, for a telephone and anassociated multimedia device, such as a computer. The multi-functionalcall processing agent, typically referred to as a combined user agent(CUA), can effectively establish multimedia sessions with the multimediadevice and voice calls with the telephone.

[0017] The present invention uses the combined call set up and handlingprocedures to enable callers to receive multimedia content from a calledentity that has an automated response system and interact therewith.Once the user has made a selection, the voice portion of the combinedcall is connected to the selected extension.

[0018] For the purposes of a full explanation, the details of a combineduser agent and its operation are set forth herein. For more detail, theinterested reader is directed to the previously incorporated '510application. With reference to FIG. 1, a communication environment 10according to the teachings of the '510 application is illustrated. Thecommunication environment 10 may include a packet network 12 including aCUA 14 and a supporting proxy 16. The CUA 14 acts as a virtual agent fora computing device, such as a computer 18, which is capable ofsupporting multimedia sessions. The computer 18 may connect to thepacket network 12 via a network access 20, which may include a localarea network (LAN), frame relay, digital subscriber line, cable, orother such methods.

[0019] The CUA 14 also acts as an agent for a traditional telephonydevice, such as a telephone 22, which is supported by a telephony switch24, such as a DMS-100 central office switch sold by Nortel NetworksLimited of 2351 Boulevard Alfred-Nobel, St. Laurent, Quebec, Canada, H4S2A9 or a public branch exchange (PBX), that is capable of providingcircuit-switched communications between the telephone 22 and othertelephony devices. To allow the CUA 14 to interact with and control thetelephony switch 24, legacy access 26 is provided between the packetnetwork 12 and the telephony switch 24. The legacy access 26 may beprovided by existing intelligent networks (IN), including the advancedintelligent network (AIN), session initiation protocol for telephones(SIP-T) capable networks, TAPI networks, and the like, that provideaccess to telephony switches 24 to facilitate call signaling. The CUA 14is configured to establish multimedia sessions over network access 20with the computer 18 as well as provide call signaling for the telephone22 through the telephony switch 24 via the legacy access 26.

[0020] The present invention is preferably implemented using the sessioninitiation protocol, commonly referred to as SIP, although otherstandards and protocols could be used without departing from the scopeof the present invention. The specification for SIP is provided in theInternet Engineering Task Force's Request for Comments (RFC) 3261:Session Initiation Protocol Internet Draft, which is hereby incorporatedby reference in its entirety. In general, SIP is used to establish mediasessions between any number of endpoints. Typically, these endpoints maysupport any number or combination of data, audio, and voice mediasessions, depending on the configuration of the device. A SIP endpointis capable of running an application, typically referred to as a useragent (UA), which is capable of facilitating media sessions using SIP.In certain embodiments, user agents may register their ability toestablish sessions with a SIP proxy by sending “REGISTER” messages tothe SIP proxy. The REGISTER message informs the SIP proxy of the SIPuniversal resource locator (URL) that identifies the user agent to theSIP network. The REGISTER message also contains information about how toreach specific user agents over the SIP network, typically by providingthe Internet Protocol (IP) address and port that the user agent will usefor SIP sessions. When a user agent wants to establish a session withanother user agent, the user agent initiating the session may send anINVITE message to the SIP proxy and specify the target user agent in theTO header of the INVITE message. Identification of the user agent takesthe form of a SIP URL. The SIP proxy will use the SIP URL in the TOheader of the message to determine if the targeted user agent isregistered with the SIP proxy. Generally, the user name is unique withinthe name space of the specified domain.

[0021] If the targeted user agent has registered with the SIP proxy, theSIP proxy will forward the INVITE message directly to the targeted useragent. The targeted user agent will respond with a 200 OK message, and asession between the respective user agents will be established as perthe message exchange required in the SIP specification. Mediacapabilities may be exchanged in other messages, such as the SIP “INFO”message. Media capabilities are typically described using the sessiondescription protocol (SDP). Once respective endpoints are in an activesession with each other and have determined each other's capabilities,the specified media content may be exchanged during an appropriate mediasession.

[0022] According to the Internet Engineering Task Force's RFC 3261, auser agent is an application that contains both a user agent client anda user agent server. A user agent client generally refers to a clientapplication that initiates SIP requests, wherein a user agent server isan application that contacts the user when a SIP request is received,and returns a response on behalf of the user. Typically, the responseaccepts, rejects, or redirects the received request.

[0023]FIG. 1 illustrates the CUA 14, which is an application, program,or function that acts on behalf of a multimedia client, provided by thecomputer 18 or other computing device, and a telephone 22. The computer18 may have a SIP user agent, which is represented by the CUA 14. Inessence, the CUA 14 will function to control call signaling to effectvoice sessions between the telephone 22 and other devices via thetelephony switch 24, and other multimedia sessions via the computer 18.Notably, the CUA 14 can effectively facilitate the integration of andassociation of voice and other multimedia sessions provided by bothdevices. To devices needing to establish sessions with either thecomputer 18 or the telephone 22 in a SIP environment, the CUA 14presents both devices as a single device having voice and othermultimedia capabilities. The other devices need not know that thetelephone 22 resides on a circuit-switched network.

[0024] In one embodiment, the CUA 14 will cooperate with the proxy 16,which is configured as a SIP proxy, in traditional fashion to establishmultimedia sessions involving the computer 18. The sessions will besupported across the network access 20 in the packet network 12. Withrespect to voice communications via the telephone 22, the voice path maytake various routes, remaining entirely within the public switchedtelephone network (PSTN), or venturing into the packet network 12 tocommunicate with a packet-switched telephony device or simply to bridgeto another circuit-switched network.

[0025] The communication environment 10 illustrated in FIG. 1illustrates voice communications between the telephone 22 and avoice-capable packet-switched device 30, such as an IP telephone 30A ora computer 30B. The packet-switched devices 30 are connected to thepacket network 12 via a local area network (LAN) 32 to supportpacket-switched communications. Since the telephone 22 and telephonyswitch 24 facilitate circuit-switched communications, a gateway (GW) 28is integrated with the telephony switch 24 or provided as a separatedevice (as shown) to convert circuit-switched communications topacket-switched communications capable of being transported over thepacket network 12 to the desired packet-switched device 30. Theconnection between the telephony switch 24 and the gateway 28 may be anytraditional telephony line or trunk. The gateway 28 appears to thetelephony switch 24 as another switching device supporting a variety oftelephone numbers, which are associated with the packet-switched devices30. Typically, the time-division multiplexed (TDM) circuit-switchedcommunications are converted into packets to facilitate voicecommunications over the Internet Protocol (VoIP). Importantly, althoughthe voice session spans the circuit-switched and packet-switchednetworks, the CUA 14 represents the telephone 22 to the devices withwhich it communicates. In essence, the telephone 22 and the computer 18form a combined legacy client 34, which is represented by the CUA 14.

[0026] With reference to FIG. 2, another CUA 14A is provided to supporta computer 18A via network access 20A and a circuit-switched telephone22A, which is supported by telephony switch 24A. The CUA 14A providescall signaling to the telephony switch 24A via legacy access 26A in asimilar manner to that described above. Further, the telephony switch24A is associated with a gateway 28A to convert circuit-switchedcommunications into packet-switched communications for transport overthe packet network 12. The communication environment 10 in FIG. 2illustrates the communication path between telephone 22 and telephone22A during a voice session being routed over the packet network 12between the gateways 28 and 28A. Multimedia sessions other than voicesessions between computers 18 and 18A may be established in traditionalfashion over the packet network 12. Again, the CUA 14 represents thecombined legacy client 34 containing the computer 18 and the telephone22, whereas the CUA 14A supports the combined legacy client 34A, whichis made up of the computer 18A and the telephone 22A. In thisembodiment, the CUA 14A is supported by the proxy 16.

[0027] With reference to FIG. 3, the CUA 14A may be supported by aseparate proxy 16A. Further, the communications between telephone 22 andtelephone 22A during a voice session may be supported entirely withinthe PSTN 36. The CUAs 14 and 14A may provide call signaling not only tothe respective telephony switches 24 and 24A, but also to other networkelements within the PSTN 36 such that they have enough information toestablish an end-to-end connection across the PSTN 36. In short, theCUAs 14 and 14A are configured to provide the necessary call signalingto establish voice sessions that are supported at least partially overthe circuit-switched network of the PSTN 36, as well as multimediasessions with the computer 18 over the packet network 12.

[0028] As illustrated in FIG. 4, the CUA 14 is preferably implemented ina control system 38 associated with a packet network interface 40 forcommunicating over the packet network 12. The control system 38 willsupport software applications providing a legacy adapter 42, amultimedia client adapter 44, and the basic CUA logic 46. The legacyadapter 42 will provide the necessary protocol adaptation and callsignaling control necessary to control the telephony switch 24 in lightof SIP or related protocols for establishing media sessions. Themultimedia client adapter 44 is used to support sessions with theassociated computer 18 or like multimedia device. The multimedia clientadapter 44 may provide protocol adaptation as necessary to establish themedia sessions of a SIP implementation, wherein when the computer 18emulates a SIP client, the CUA logic 46 will simply represent themultimedia capabilities of the computer 18 for the non-voice mediasessions. The CUA logic 46 will also cooperate with the legacy adapter42 to provide the necessary call signaling for the telephony switch 24to control voice communications with the telephone 22. Accordingly, theCUA logic 46 cooperates with the legacy adapter 42 and the multimediaclient adapter 44 to provide an interface to the computer 18 as well asan interface to the telephony switch 24, and an interface forcommunications with other devices, such as the proxy 16. In an exemplaryembodiment, the CUA 14 may be incorporated into the InteractiveMultimedia Server sold by Nortel Networks Limited of 2351 BoulevardAlfred-Nobel, St. Laurent, Quebec, Canada, H4S 2A9.

[0029] Against this backdrop, the present invention is readilyimplemented. The present invention allows callers that reach automatedattendants associated with the called entity to receive multimediainformation so as to facilitate selection of a desired connection oroption within the automated attendant's options. The communicationnetwork 10A in which such a situation may occur is illustrated in FIG.5. The called entity may be a call center, an enterprise, or otherentity with multiple phones 22 that share at least one common PSTN phonenumber. Collectively, this is represented herein as a user group 35. Inprior art implementations, the incoming call can be answered first by alive attendant or operator who then connects the caller to the properphone 22 within the user group 35. Alternatively, the incoming call canbe answered by an automated attendant 50. The automated attendant 50 isrepresentative of any automated response system and may includeinteractive voice response (IVR) features as needed or desired. Further,the automated attendant 50 may answer any incoming calls to the usergroup 35 and present the caller with menus and prompts which must benavigated before the caller is connected to the person or informationthat they seek. For the purposes of the present invention, the finalchoice is termed an “extension.” While normally the term “extension”implies a particular phone number extension, the present usage is notlimited strictly to such situations, but also includes otherterminations points, like a recorded announcement, a voice mail systemor a call center system. The automated attendant 50 can also acceptadditional in-band dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signaling from thecaller to signal which specific extension is to be reached. In bothcases the automated attendant 50 signals to the switch 24A to whichspecific phone 22 from user group 35 the caller needs to be connected.

[0030] The present invention provides a technique through which thecaller is assisted in the navigation through the menus and selectionsprovided by the automated attendant. The automated attendant 50 isaugmented with an automated attendant server 51. The combination of theautomated attendant server 51 and the automated attendant 50 creates ahybrid automated attendant 52, which is represented on the network 12 bya CUA 14B. The CUA 14B functions like the CUA 14A, previously described.The automated attendant server 51 communicates with the CUA 14B throughany appropriate means and protocols over an access network 54. Thehybrid automated attendant 52 uses the CUA 14B for managing its combinedvoice and media sessions. The CUA 14B may be communicatively connectedto a CUA database (DB) 56 that stores what CUAs 14 are associated withwhat phone numbers and/or addresses. Other profile information may alsobe stored in CUA database 56 as needed or desired.

[0031] The methodology of the present invention is illustrated in FIG.6. Specifically, a caller dials a number for user group 35 usingtelephone 22 (block 100). While dialing is one embodiment, the callermay provide an address or identifier for the user group 35 through anyappropriate means. User group 35 may be an enterprise, call center, orother location with an automated attendant or automated response system.The switches 24 and 24A set up the call (block 102). The call is thenrouted to the automated attendant 50 (block 104).

[0032] In parallel with the call being routed to the automatedattendant, the CUA 14B is informed of the incoming call, the phonenumber of the caller, and any other information as needed or desired(block 106). The CUA 14B accesses the CUA database 56 to locate anaddress, typically expressed as a uniform resource locator (URL) or adirectory number, for the CUA 14 based on the caller's phone number orother identification element (block 108). Although a single CUA database56 is shown, a number of CUA databases 56 can be involved in the searchfor the CUA 14 address, using well known techniques outside the scope ofthis invention. If the caller does not have multimedia capabilities anddoes not have a CUA 14, then the search of CUA database 56 will not finda valid entry and the call will be treated like a normal call such thatit is handled by the audio-only automated attendant 50. The CUA 14B alsoretrieves multimedia session information from the automated attendantserver 52 (block 110). This information may be extension number,directories, menus, and other multimedia content that may be presentedto the caller. Note that this step is optional. The information mayremain stored with the automated attendant server 52.

[0033] The CUA 14B sets up a session with the CUA 14 (block 112). Thismay be done by the aforedescribed SIP messages. The CUA 14B sendsmultimedia content to the computer 18 (block 114) or other multimediacapable device through the CUA 14. In the event that the CUA 14Bretrieved the information in block 110, then the CUA 14B sends theinformation, otherwise, the CUA 14B instructs the automated attendantserver 52 to send the information to the computer 18. This multimediacontent is used to present the caller with menus and selection optionscorresponding to those normally audibly presented by the automatedattendant 50, but instead of the purely audible options, the caller maybe presented with multimedia versions of these options and menus on thecomputer 18. Further, these options may be supplemented with additionalinformation as needed or desired. The caller can make selections fromthe multimedia interface presented on computer 18 (block 116).Specifically, the caller may be given the option to perform a query ofthe directory for user group 35. For example, the caller could type in,using the computer 18, the name of the person or department with whomthe caller desires contact. The request would be sent to the automatedattendant server 52 which would do the search and send back, to thecaller via the computer 18, a list of matching entries. The caller wouldthen simply select a desired entry.

[0034] The CUA 14B interprets the selections made by the caller andprovides additional options and menus as needed until the caller selectsan extension or phone number with which the caller desires to beconnected (block 118). The CUA 14B instructs the switch 24A to route thecall to the selected destination (block 120), and the caller isconnected to the selected extension (block 122).

[0035] While the process has been described linearly, it is possiblethat some of the steps may take place concurrently or in a differentorder and still fall within the scope of the present invention.Likewise, while the multimedia exchange takes place, a concurrent audioexchange with the audio-only automated attendant 50 may be used inparallel, allowing the caller to make choices in a manner mostconvenient to the caller.

[0036] Note further that while the above process has been described withthe CUA 14B of the combined user 35 searching the CUA database 56 forthe multimedia capabilities of the caller, it is also possible that thecaller may pass along an indication of multimedia capabilities with theoriginal call set up. This may be done by using a flag or similartechnique. In an exemplary embodiment, the originating switch determinesif the calling party is multimedia capable, and if yes, a flag is addedto the call processing message sent toward the called party. Theterminating switch checks for the flag and passes information concerningthe flag to the CUA 14. Other permutations on this can be performed asneeded or desired.

[0037] Those skilled in the art will recognize improvements andmodifications to the preferred embodiments of the present invention. Allsuch improvements and modifications are considered within the scope ofthe concepts disclosed herein and the claims that follow.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of assisting callers using an automatedresponse system, comprising: receiving a call from a calling device froma caller; determining if the caller can receive multimedia content;contacting a multimedia capable device associated with the caller; andproviding to the caller, through the multimedia device, multimediacontent related to the automated response system.
 2. The method of claim1, further comprising receiving a selection from the caller in responseto providing multimedia content to the caller.
 3. The method of claim 2,further comprising making a voice connection based on the selection fromthe caller.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein contacting a multimediacapable device associated with the caller comprises contacting acomputer associated with the caller.
 5. The method of claim 1, whereinproviding to the caller, through the multimedia device, multimediacontent related to the automated response system comprises providingmultimedia content through one or more combined user agents.
 6. Themethod of claim 1, wherein determining if the caller can receivemultimedia content comprises searching a database.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising accepting audible input from the caller. 8.The method of claim 7, further comprising receiving a non-audibleselection from the caller in response to providing multimedia content tothe caller.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein accepting audible inputfrom the caller occurs in parallel with receiving the non-audibleselection.
 10. A method of placing a call, comprising: providing anaddress for an automated response system; and receiving multimediacontent from the automated response system relating to options for theautomated response system.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein receivingmultimedia content comprises receiving multimedia content on a computer.12. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving multimedia contentcomprises receiving multimedia content from the automated responsesystem relating to options from which selections may be made for theautomated response system.
 13. The method of claim 12, furthercomprising making a selection based on said options.
 14. The method ofclaim 13, further comprising being connected with a voice connection toan extension based on said selection.
 15. The method of claim 10,wherein receiving multimedia content comprises receiving multimediacontent through one or more combined user agents.
 16. The method ofclaim 10, wherein receiving multimedia content from the automatedresponse system relating to options for the automated response systemcomprises receiving a searchable directory.
 17. The method of claim 16,further comprising selecting an entry in the searchable directory. 18.The method of claim 10, further comprising providing audible selectionsto prompts form the automated response system.
 19. The method of claim18, further comprising making non-audible selections based on themultimedia content.
 20. A system comprising: an interface adapted tofacilitate multimedia communications; and a control system associatedwith the interface and providing a combined user agent, which is adaptedto: receive multimedia content from an automated response system andprovide the multimedia content to the caller on a computer.
 21. Thesystem of claim 20, wherein said combined user agent is further adaptedto communicate selections made by the caller to the automated responsesystem.
 22. The system of claim 21, wherein said combined user agent isfurther adapted to help set up a voice session based on a responsereceived to the selections.
 23. The system of claim 20, furthercomprising a telephone associated with said combined user agent throughwhich voice communications may be made.
 24. The system of claim 20,wherein said combined user agent is registered in a database along withan indication that the caller associated with the combined user agent ismultimedia capable.
 25. A system for facilitating use of an automatedattendant, comprising: a combined user agent adapted to: receive anindication of an incoming call from a caller; provide multimedia contentto the caller; and receive selections from the caller based on theprovided multimedia content.
 26. The system of claim 25, wherein saidcombined user agent is further adapted to initiate a voice connectionbetween the caller and an extension based in part on the selections. 27.The system of claim 25, wherein said combined user agent is adapted toprovide multimedia content to the caller through the caller's combineduser agent.
 28. The system of claim 25, wherein said combined user agentis adapted to receive selections from the caller through the caller'scombined user agent.
 29. The system of claim 25, wherein said combineduser agent is further adapted to make a voice connection between thecaller and an extension based on said selection.
 30. The system of claim25, wherein said combined user agent searches a database to determine ifthe caller is capable of supporting multimedia sessions.
 31. The systemof claim 25, wherein said combined user agent is further adapted tosupport concurrent voice and multimedia sessions between the caller andthe automated attendant.
 32. A computer readable medium comprisingsoftware functioning as a combined user agent adapted to: receivemultimedia content from an automated response system and provide themultimedia content to the caller on a computer.
 33. The computerreadable medium of claim 32, wherein said combined user agent is furtheradapted to communicate selections made by the caller to the automatedresponse system.
 34. The computer readable medium of claim 33, whereinsaid combined user agent is further adapted to help set up a voicesession based on a response received to the selections.
 35. The computerreadable medium of claim 32, wherein said combined user agent is furtheradapted to support concurrent voice and multimedia sessions such thatthe caller may make selections in either the voice or the multimediasessions.
 36. A computer readable medium for facilitating use of anautomated attendant, comprising software functioning as a combined useragent adapted to: receive an indication of an incoming call from acaller; provide multimedia content to the caller; and receive selectionsfrom the caller based on the provided multimedia content.
 37. Thecomputer readable medium of claim 36, wherein said combined user agentis further adapted to initiate a voice connection between the caller andan extension based in part on the selections.
 38. The computer readablemedium of claim 36, wherein said combined user agent is adapted toprovide multimedia content to a caller through the caller's combineduser agent.
 39. The computer readable medium of claim 36, wherein saidcombined user agent is adapted to receive selections from the callerthrough the caller's combined user agent.
 40. The computer readablemedium of claim 36, wherein said combined user agent is further adaptedto make a voice connection between the caller and an extension based onsaid selection.
 41. The computer readable medium of claim 36, whereinsaid combined user agent is adapted to support concurrent voice andmultimedia sessions.
 42. The computer readable medium of claim 41,wherein the caller may make selections in either the voice or themultimedia sessions.